Hrvatica u SAD-u

Vrijeme luduje . Ono nevrijeme iz Los Angelesa sad stize k nama. Vani je bezveze - hladno i vjetrovito. Mislim ,stvarno, ja hocu sunce!

Bush je napustio Ameriku, ali samo za kratko dok sece Europom. Sastaje se s predstavnicima na otmjenim domjencima tip vilica s lijeve strane, zlica s desne, a noz u leda.

Sutra igramo zadnju utakmicu kosarkaske sezone. I onda kaputt, gotova kosarka....
Tuzno,ne?

n.p. aerosmith - cryin'

Eto sta mi blogiranje uzrokovalo! Stavila sam tortillu u pecnicu da se zagrije pa da napravim slasni burrito i dok ja citam tude misli i avanture, tortilla se sprzila , a kuhinja se ispunila bijelim dimom ;))

Kad smo kod bijelog dima, evo glavnog pravila svakog studenta elektrotehnike:

Idem jahati hehe..... :)
Konji su bas cakani. Jos me nijedan nije ritnuo a valjd i nece. Mallory mi je pokazala kako prolaziti iza konja - trik je u tome da idete jako blizu njihove, jeld, ritice. Onda vas on ne moze kiknuti ni da hoce jer je fizicki nemoguce tako mu saviti nogu. Cool (al ipak se moram naviknuti na to)

p.s. vazna stvar koju trebam napomenuti - u zivotu sam samo jednom jahala, i to ponija. Molite se da se ovakva spretna ne ubijem tamo na hipodromu ;)

ne da mi se dovrsiti zadacu iz Forenzike, pa sam nekim cudom naisla na ovu zanimljivost. Isprobajte, nece vam nista biti .

n.p Offspring - Bad Habit

petak i subotu sam provela sa svojom ekipom u hotelcicu u Roswellu. Bazeni, saune.....di ces bolje ;)
DUga voznja do tamo, jedno 3 sata, a jos i vrijeme luduje. Tu su svi u ekstazi jer u zivotu nije bilo ovoliko kise. Skola, kao i obicno, placa sve troskove pa smo rucali u Applebees-u, vecerali u Dairy Queen-u, slijedeci dan dorucak u International House Of Pancakes, i na putu doma narucili pizzu iz Pizza Hut. Previse je to hrane, vec bi se zabrinula da nismo imali dvije ubitacne utakmice koje su razradile te kalorije.



Prvu smo dobili, a drugu izgubili.

Sto se tice Roswella kao grada, ne bih podnijela tu zivjeti. Malo izolirano mjesto, sve trgovine se furaju na aliene, svijetla svijetle zeleno i imaju crne vanzemaljske oci, ... I cudan neki miris po cijelom gradu....
Sretna ja u svom Albuquerqueu!

Doma smo dosli oko 8 navecer, Claire me dosla pokupiti i nasred ceste - auto prestane raditi! Nista , ni makac. Samo klizi, sve svijetli, kocnice i upravljac se zakljucali...hehe..jedva smo skrenuli u neku ulicicu da se maknemo s glavne ceste tako da sam umjesto izlaska van, subotu navecer provela zafrkavajuci se s Claire dok smo cekali da nam odvuku auto i da starci dodu po nas. Ipak smo se smijale ko napusene. A sta ces u takvoj situaciji. Ne vrijedi plakat, bolje odvrnit glazbu u autu i napravit privatni party ;)

upravo me netko prosvijetlio da u 5. mjesecu tu dolazi GREEN DAY
Ma to!
VIdjet cu ih uzivo, skakat na njihovu zivu mjuzu, slusat Billyja....ah
I'm so happy

Pada kisa! Kisa! u New Mexicu.....
Imamo tekmu protiv St. Pius - nasih glavnih protivnika - bit ce ludo!!

...pa se moze nastaviti s normalnim zivotom ;)
Danas je jedan od onih dana kad ti je ogledalo smrtni neprijatelj, pa bolje necemo o tome. Usredotocimo se na prijasnju vecer.

Uglavnom, jeld, izasli smo na veceru. Izabrali odlican restoran, u kojem ja nikad nisam bila, ali indijski restorani su obicno fenomenalni. Svi smo ocekivali da ce biti lijepo, ali smo se iznenadili kad su interijer, hrana i osoblje nadmasili sva nasa ocekivanja.





Konobari su se htjeli druziti s nama pa su nam stalno prilazili i pricali nesto. Nakon 2 sata uzivancije smo napustili ovo mjestasce koje je odsad moja nova omiljena lokacija.

Dan je poceo vaflima u obliku Miki Mausa - Karen i Bill ih pripremili za Emmu i mene. Cokolade i cestitke su neizostavne.
U skoli se dijele pokloni, roditelji za svaki razred dovukli vrucu cokoladu , slatkise transformirane u srceke, lizu se slatka srca, po nasim prostorijam-okupljalistima letaju baloni...

Za rucak ko obicno - casedille, burritosi, nachosi....blabla , desert ovaj put "Make your own cookie"
Mastovito, nema sta.

Inace, stvarno je tesko vratiti se u skolu nakon dobrog vikenda. Naime, prije 48 sati je bio Winter Ball iliti Zimski Ples ( mrzli tancung , LOL)
U biti ista fora kao i Homecoming, ali manje formalno, pa tako i puno ludje ;)

Emma i ja smo se nasli s ostalih 5 cura u Laureninoj kuci - ili bolje receno vili. Ja nemam strpljenja sama si praviti kompliciranu frizuru pa su cure to sredile ko prave majstorice. Jos ne mogu vjerovati da smo nakon prvih par rap pjesama pocele slusati Britney i Madonnu...(shame on you)
E sad, ko prave mace, naravno da smo kasnile. Decki su cekali dolje da sidemo niz stepenice , a roditelji se skupili ko lesinari i transformirali se u papparazzije.

Omdah su mi prisli Travisovi roditelji da me upoznaju i vide s kim to njihov sin ide na Winter Ball. Decko mi je donio ruzu, slatko, ne?

Slika ima milijun, ovo su samo neke

Nitko nije pao niz stepenice (osim Emme, al to je bilo samo malo klizanja, nista drugo)
Nakon jedno pola sata, ili sat vremena smo se uspjeli iskrasti iz kuce i ostaviti bliceve fotoaparata iza nas.





Cure su samo navukle patike i - spremne - haljine nam nisu smetale ;)

Na ples smo dosli oko 10, savrseno vrijeme, islikali se a onda zaboravili na sve ostalo i prepustili se partijanju.
[B]Afterparty [/B]je organiziran u Janaeinoj kuci (koja je, majke mi, dvorac, a ne kuca), brckali se u jacuzziju, uzivali i zaspali oko 4-5....
Sve u svemu.....zgodna subota!

Dani lete prebrzio da ih uhvatim i uguram u ovaj mali blog-prostor

Subota - isli na cross-country ski trip. Super bilo, nisam znala da je Telemarking skijanje tak teskoooo

Subota navecer - najbolji koncert otkad sam dosla. U Launch Pad-u se nije moglo disati koliko se tijela zguralo jedno uz drugo. Nastupali su Authority Zero (nikad cula, al dobar nastup imali!). A glavna atrakcija je bio odlican Hawaii bend - The Pepper. Zvuk je mjesavina punka, rocka, i reggae, a rijeci su pametne...uzitak slusati

Nedjelja - Superbowl ...svi se priljepili za televizore, jedu, i gledaju football satima ( zapravo, nista drukcije nego inace ;)

Utorak - Marti Gras, neki ludi praznik,
imali tekmu protiv West Mesa HS...pobijedile
Nakon toga isla sa svojima u Il Vicino, talijanski restoran/bistro. Vjerojatno ljudima izgledam kao Talijanka , jer su valjda zato svi stalno blejali u mene i smijeskali mi se.

Sad je srijeda i moram ici pomoci svojim curama na projektu koji radimo - ukratko : popljuvat cemo McDonald's i pokusat otvorit ljudima oci.Mislite da cemo uspjeti?

Choose four of the five questions below and write a thorough response which addresses all of the components of the question. You don’t have to have a fully developed thesis, but you should have a clear point of view when appropriate. Use specific evidence from the essays, documents and class discussions to support your responses.


1. Discuss the economic and social factors which drove the Atlantic Slave Trade.

Colonization of the New World made a huge demand for workers and labor supply. Slave traders didn’t see much of African culture so they noted the Africans as uncivilized, undeveloped people living in backward society. Slave capturers and traders didn’t go deep into the heart of Africa; they were mostly at the coast. They didn’t realize that Africa was “a continent of extraordinary variation in geography and culture”. This false belief allowed them to perform the cruelties over the slaves. Slavery itself was nothing new to the colonists or to the Africans. In Gary Nash’s Black People in a White People’s Country we read that “Slavery was not a new social phenomenon for either Europeans or Africans”. As the New World was being more and more colonized the demand for labor constantly grew. The reason people came to the New World was to achieve fortune and wealth. The best formula to achieve that wealth was to get as much workers as possible for the least amount of money. Africa was a new source of trade and so much cheaper than the Europeans indentured servants. Servants were also legally protected because they agreed to work for a certain amount of time, not for the life. Less white servants meant more need for slaves. Africa was the most available and the most logical source to exploit. The novelty in the slave trading in Africa and the one in Americas was the massiveness. The incredible number of slaves made them be less important as individuals, and seen as cargo. As Europeans demanded sugar from the tropics of the New World, the production of sugar grew and so did the production of coffee, tobacco, indigo, and cotton. Those kinds of plantations demand a lot of work, so workforce was desperately needed and it made a huge business out of slave trade.
Native Americans were not fit to be slaves because they could easily escape home. Blacks couldn’t escape that easily because they couldn’t go anywhere as we saw in the movie The Last Supper and getting to Africa wasn’t that easy. Unlike Native Americans, black people were more immune to diseases that made them more fit to exploit and perfect to fit into the huge business and madness of Atlantic slave trade.


2. Consider the connection between race, slavery and racism. We have suggested that slavery precedes racism. Why do we think that? If you don’t fully agree, what counter evidence can you amass to support you perspective? Do you think economic or social factors are more important? Why?

Race, being the group of people with similar genetic characteristics, is different than the idea of whiteness in colonial times. What happened in the time preceding slavery is that white people defined their whiteness socially. At the time, being white was synonymous with being an English protestant. Even Irish and German were not considered white, in which religion played the important role. Still, they were slowly assimilated into the society. But at the lowest bottom were Africans. They were the most different ones and the culture they had was not even perceived by white people. The way they looked was the most important one and it made it impossible for them to be completely assimilated into that kind of the society. The idea of racism is a human creation that squeezed every member of the population into a mold and strongly suggested that those same characteristics they have can never change.
Racism rose out of slavery and the proof that racism didn’t create slavery, but the other way around is the existence of slavery in Africa and Europe. Christians enslaved the Muslims, Muslims enslaved Christians, and African tribes enslaved each other. Nash emphasizes, “It is important to note that in all these regions slavery and serfdom had nothing to do with racial characteristics.”
“One became a slave by being an “outsider” or and “infidel”, by being captured in war, by voluntarily selling oneself into slavery to obtain money for one’s family, or by committing certain heinous crime.”
That kind of slavery still didn’t isolate the slave from the society nor did it take his humanity away from him. The labor need increased so much that huge amounts of slaves were transported to the New World. Millions of blacks were enslaved and slave traders saw them like cattle, livestock. They were inspected at the coast like animals, and white people had to develop an opinion about inferiority of blacks to do such humiliating things. Slave traders didn’t care for slaves, they brutalized them and treated them worse than cattle. One human being can’t do that to another and still feel self-righteous if he doesn’t believe that the one he is abusing is less than human. Therefore slavery produced racism in an attempt to justify the misery white people inflicted to the black people.


3. By calling slavery a “totalitarian system,” Blassingame is referring to the nearly total power difference between the owner and the owned. Yet, he suggests that even within this system slaves exercise some small degree of control over their lives. To what extent is this true? How does it work and why do owners allow it to happen?

In totalitarianism, slave’s fate was determined by his master. Still, slaves were able to exercise some amount of control. As Blassingame says “There was so much variation in plantations, overseers and masters, however that the slave had much more freedom from restraint and more independence and autonomy than his institutionally defined role allowed.”
Economically it wasn’t profitable for the master to kill his slaves, because that was same as destroying your possessions so the master had to tolerate some little things.
As every human being carries his own culture with him, so did the black people who were enslaved.
Slaves had some control, but not the one like we usually understand it. Of course, they couldn’t give orders to masters, but they had the control over the center of their being. They could rebel and they did it in variety of ways. They ran away, broke tools, goldbricked (intentionally slowed down the work) or, less often, they committed suicides, murders and armed revolt.
Other than that, to “keep going”, slaves had to create their own worlds to take their minds of off work, punishments and cruelties they were exposed to during the day. Once the master’s overseers weren’t present, they did what was natural and human to do – told stories, talked to each other, sang, made friends, nurtured their religion and interacted with their families or at least the people who became their families. Those were the things that couldn’t be taken away from them because they were at the core of their life and existence.

4. In the Document “Despotism in America”, Hildreth argues that slavery is responsible for the relative poverty of the South compared to the North. Assuming that he is right why then does slavery persist? Discuss the factors, other than economic ones, which drive the institution of slavery.

5. We have suggested that the nature of the experience of being a slave in the United States depends in very large measure on the character, personality and values of the master. Using the documents and essays we have read, either support this contention, or discuss the limitations and flaws of this contention.`

Masters varied from person to person, but they still worked constantly to show slaves how low they are and that they have to conform to any white man’s wish. ”The slave was flogged for disputing a white man’s word”. Even if plantation owners were sometimes good, they had a huge amount of power to exercise and that amount of power easily corrupted people.
The sole fact that those people even could hold slaves told something about their relationship with slaves. They had no respect for them, so they couldn’t treat them like human beings. Usually field workers “rose before dawn, prepared their meals, fed the livestock, and then rushed to the fields before sunrise.” Most of the slaves described their lives as Lewis Clark did in Life in Totalitarian System:”We were constantly exposed to the whims and passions of every member of the family: from the least to the greatest their anger was wreaked upon us”
“The slaves described masters […] as besotted, vicious, deceitful, coarse, licentious, bloodthirsty, heartless and hypocritical Christians.”
Some of the plantation owners seemed good like we see in Richard Corbin’s Plantation Management. He insisted that “none of them [slaves] suffer in time of sickness for want of proper care”. Still, it didn’t forbid any abuse when slaves were not sick or pregnant and those were only his orders to the overseers or black drivers. The overseers were described by slaves as “mean as devil” and in Life in a Totalitarian System we see that “the slaves complained instead of the driver’s sexual exploitation of black women, his alacrity in meting out punishment, and his favorism in giving rewards” which shows us the cruelty of the driver.
In order to achieve productiveness, planters preformed cruelty over their slaves. The usual way to motivate slaves was fear, not the expectation of an award. In Ads For Runaway Slaves we see that masters didn’t care how slaves were returned to them, and often they much rather wanted them dead then alive.
“The slaves often complained bitterly about what their masters described as adequate housing. Most of the autobiographers reported that they lived in crudely built one-room log cabins with dirt floors and too many cracks in them to permit much comfort during the winter months.” The same thing happened when it comes to clothing and food. Of course, there were exceptions: “few slaves were as fortunate as Sam Aleckson whose master’s slave cabins were not only neat and commodious, but also had flower gardens in front of them”. All these facts together show that it was possible for a slave to be fortunate enough to get a fair and honest master but the odds were very small. Therefore we can’t say that most of the slaves had a good chance of being treated well, because they were constantly told to be unfit for freedom, that they are things for white men to use and in addition to that they had to appear cheerful and content to the outside world. That is why most of the records inform us about the unspeakable cruelty that black people experienced and the suffering they went through on a daily basis, which limits the statement that slave’s fate depended largely on master’s character.

U nedjelju ujutro sam doznala da nas je Spanjolska pregazila. Al sta sad, idemo dalje, nema smisla plakati.

Prije par tjedana je na skoli, izmedu ostalog, organiziran Career Day.
Dosli su forenzicari, odvjetnici, glumci, menadzeri, kemicari, fizicari, biolozi, fotografi, casnici, agenti FBI.....itd.

i svatko od nas Juniora je odabrao 4 zanimanja o kojima zeli znati vise i proveo pola sata s ljudima iz te profesije..Tek toliko da dobijes neku sliku o tome kako ce ti dan izgledati ako se odlucis za taj i taj posao.

Moj popis ;

- Civil Attorney
- College Professor
- Psychiatrist
- FBI Agent

ovo trece nisam trazila (htjedoh Forensic Psychology) al mi je bar pomoglo donijeti odluku da ne zelim imati veze s psihijatrijom ;)

Odvjetnik je bio odlican, i taj me smjer privlaci...

Predavati na sveucilistu mi je sad jos zanimljivije , da ne spominjem 3 velika argumenta koji idu u prilog tom poslu - lipanj, srpanj i kolovoz !

U sobi gdje su se smjestili FBI guys je bilo natrpano ko u kokosinjcu.
Decki su se drzali profesionalno, mozda malkice previse macho, al to im je posao, mora se bit ozbiljan, opasan ;)

tu su slike, samo odvucite mis gore na NEWS i kliknite MEDIA GALLERY

prvo dobijem voicemail i slusam mamu kako isprekidanim glasom komentira utakmicu.
Odmah se izvucem sa sata, kazem Dannyju (profac Packer)da moram nazvati mamu, pitanje zivota i smrti ;)
Zadnjih 20 sekundi utakmice, cujem komentatora u pozadini , kao da sam kod kuce , mama vice "Jos petnaest sekundi, Srbi imaju zadnji napad...i evo....joj....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!"
Sta je bilo, vristi se,tutnji, tresti ...i u glasu prepoznam pobjedu prije nego mi je i rekla sto se dogodilo. Hrvatska ide dalje!

;)

uf.....tesko je bilo koncentrirati se na razgovor o Civil Rights Movement-u kad me glavom samo prolaze misli kako se sad slavi doma....ah...(prvih desetak minuta smo naravno razgovarali - tj. ja sam pricala - o ovoj pobjedi, uz jos jedno objasnjenje kako se rukomet igra svima u razredu )

Jos jedan problem! ima li ikakve sanse da ja na nekom kanalu tu nadem prijenos utakmice za prvo mjesto?....ako itko zna za nekakvo extra-lako-brzo-ucinkovito-tralalala rjesenje, k'o ne-znam-sto vas molim, javite mi!

moja ekipica i ja smo danas smisljali stereotipe koje mozemo prikaciti svakom od nas, i po kojem bi odmah znali na kog se misli
eto rezultata "dubokoumnih" razgovora

Van - the musician
Bolezsek - the stoner
Addie - lesbian jock
Mallory - cowgirl
Tony - party girl
Anna - hot Jew
moi ;) - the foreign chick
Seth - gay guy
TJ - loveable one
Lydia - the artist
Becky - hm.....nisam zapamtila....ona se jednostavno pojavi i nestane da ni ne primjetis...

i tako....ovo je samo proizvod nasih cudnih umova pa nemojte sve uzeti za ozbiljno...
adios!

Dobra prijateljica koju sam tu stekla otputovala jucer ujutro. Anna otisla na razmjenu u Izrael. Tako da smo imali u nedjelju oprostajku u japanskom restoranu. Nas 15-20 se utrpalo unutra, i ubrzo su stigli i nasi privatni "kung fu majstori" ;)
Sva ona vatra koju raspiruju pred tobom, bacanje pribora, izvodenje nemogucih poteza s hranom, me podsjetilo na one borilacke filmove s Van Dammom ili Jackie Chanom, koje sam gutala kao klinka - gdje glavni fajtovi uvijek pocnu bacanjem kroz tu finu vatricu.

(mala digresija: polako uocavam da mi se rodno-jezicni vokabular stanjuje, i sve bih radije izgovorila na engleskom ;)

Pjevali smo Anni sretan rodendan, skupa s ostalim ljudima tamo ( iako joj je rodendan tek za 10 dana, al ko da oni znaju , ajd sad), i zvakali sushi. Mmmmm....ne mogu se jos odluciti koja je hrana bolja - japanska ili indijska. Uz ovakva mjesta , ozbiljno mi se bljuje na pomisao da netko ipak radije jede McDonalds..tuzno

Predvecer smo se poceli oprastati. Nesto smo se rastuzile kad smo skuzile da se mozda nikad vise necemo vidjeti - naime, Anna stize doma u lipnju, oko 6., a ja odlazim u New York prije tog, i onda doma iz Bostona...smrc ;(

Na izlasku iz restorana, svi popalili svoje cigare, cigarete, smrcu duhan, hehe (ne ja, ja = andel >;)
Pa je Annin i Gregov tata samo tuzno uzdahnuo , jer prodike nicemu ne sluze....nazalost.
A Greg , Annin buraz je taj koji je dijelio cigare hehe ;)

I opet je pocelo kisiti! ludilo - ovo je izuzetna godinu za ovo mjesto zedno vode :0I to znaci da gore u planinama koje gledaju na ovaj gradic snijezi kao pomahnitalo - znaci da ce biti prelijepog svjezeg snijega za skijanje na koje idemo u subotu. SKi- day ! ;)

ogromna razlika se ovdje osjeti u vremenu......minute cure kao pijesak kroz razbijenipjescani sat.
Ovaj vikend =ocjena odlican!
zapravo,za mene odlican,za neke los...jeld ,moji host roditelji su otisli u South Carolinu na pogreb.
Emma i ja same u kuci cijeli vikend ;)
hm.....ne bas.Morale smo ipak provesti subotu navecer kod prijatelja, al ostalo vrijeme kuca je nasa (iako tehnicki nismo bas smjele nikoga dovoditi)

Subota -
Addie je slavila rodendan u Indian Palace
Pozvana je samo posebna G-Spot ekipa hehe
samo nas desetoro koji stalno visimo skupa
Nova kameraje sve zabiljezila ,nasrecu i nazalost, jer smo radili ...svasta ;)

Prije toga smo Mallory i ja provele cijeli dan kruzeci downtown, Central Street i trazili nesto blesavo...
a tko trazi taj i nade ;)

Nakon odlicne Indijske hrane,i hrpe ispijenih Mango Lassi, zaputili se u nasu verziju "Cheersa" - a gdje drugdje nego Blue Dragon

Buduci da sam ja trebala prespavati kod Fran, odoh do nje oko 10.
Subota navecer, 10 sati.....obavezno se mora ici na neki party pa smo se isuljale i otisle na after-party klinaca iz Sandia Prep HS. (imali su Winter Ball prije tog, a tema je cowboys and cowgirls, pa su svi lupali okolo u cizmama i mahali sesirima)
Svi su se naravno planirali naliti, a meni i Fran bas i nije bilo do tog veceras pa smo zbrisale. Pozivi na partije su stizali od tipova koji su se zaustavljali kraj mog prozora i upucavali se.
HM...ne bi islo :)
Zaputile se doma, odvrnule glazbicu i divljale u autu . Pocele smo gledati neki filmic "Swimming Pool" i zaspale u dnevnoj sobi.